Polynesian punisher Tua fights for long-delayed destiny

By JIM SLATER

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (November 9, 2000 4:50 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Punching palm trees and whacking weeds with a machete as a child helped bring David Tua from a tiny tropical paradise in the South Pacific to the brink of boxing's world heavyweight throne.

Now the first Polynesian to win an Olympic medal ends his two-year wait for a chance to realize a championship dream, facing Britain's Lennox Lewis for the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation crowns here Saturday.

"Woo Hoo. Who would think a boy cutting coconuts back home would be in this?" Tua said. "This isn't about championship belts. This is about destiny. My destiny shall be fulfilled."

Ten days before his 28th birthday, the native of Western Samoa who fights out of New Zealand will carry a 37-1 mark with 32 knockouts into the ring against 35-year-old champion Lewis, 37-1 with one drawn and 29 knockouts.

Tua has waited two years since becoming a top-ranked challenger while Lewis fought Evander Holyfield twice to unify the crown then defended against Michael Grant and South Africa's Frans Botha. Now, finally, comes Tua's turn.

"I have waited. I'm better than other guys he has fought and I'm hungrier," Tua said. "It was frustrating. But I believed in myself. I knew my day would come."

Tua's first meeting with a current or former world champion will begin when a conch shell horn is blown and he enters the soldout 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay arena to the beat of Samoan war drums.

The 1992 Olympic bronze medalist for New Zealand, whose family moved from the island nation of 185,000 to Auckland at age 11, will wear a sacred Samoan "fa'asole" coral bead necklace.

"Normally only the high chiefs can wear them," Tua said. "But the prime minister gave everyone in the country permission to wear them this week as a show of support for me. The whole country is behind me. It's very touching.

"It brings David Tua to his knees. It makes me happy to put Samoa and New Zealand on the map. It humbles me, the support I've gotten."

Even amid the neon splendor of this gambling mecca, Tua has kept the values learned growing up poor, when his mother worked three jobs to support his boxing and other people's discarded junk became his bicycle and television set.

"Those things give me inner strength," Tua said. "I'm not fascinated by celebrities. I'm fascinated by simpler things. That's reality. That's life. As a celebrity, one time you're up, then you're down. But the real heroes and legends are hard-working men and women."

Tua was born Mafaufau Sanerivi Talimatasi - Samoan for considerate one who strikes with one hand - into a family of nine children on the island Faleatiu. Mother Noela and father Tuavale, who will attend their first pro fight Saturday, ran a grocery store.

Tua's father offered prizes to island men for fighting his son to toughen him. He often ran and hid but learned to fight back. It was his older sister Christine who gave him his first bloody nose at age nine.

"I was big for my age and I fought hard. I didn't have a choice," Tua said. "I got hurt. These were grown men. I took care of myself. Those guys always knew they had been in a fight."

At 13, Tua hid metal tools in his trunks during a weigh-in so he could fight as a heavyweight and won the title with a first-round knockout. By 16, he was New Zealand champion and at 19 an Olympic medalist with a 78-7 amateur record.

"I discovered I had something special at an early age," Tua said. "It's a God-given talent to be able to knock people out."

Tua won his first 27 pro fights before his lone defeat, a controversial 1997 decision to Ike Ibeabuchi.

"That taught me a lesson," Tua said. "I learned not to leave it to the judges. I'm not going to box or counterpunch. There's no secret to my style."

Ibeabuchi is in the Nevada Mental Health Institute and has a December court date after pleading insanity for holding a woman captive in a hotel room. Tua has stopped nine of his 10 foes since the loss, only once going the distance.

Now comes Lewis, and Tua's moment of truth.

"We've prepared eight years for this fight. He's ready," Tua trainer Ronnie Shields said. "His destiny is to be the champion of the world."

Fight training or jungle training for Tua?

By ED SCHUYLER JR.
AP Boxing Writer

LAS VEGAS (November 9, 2000 4:46 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - A monkey in a diaper attended David Tua's final workout Thursday for his challenge to heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. The lion and tiger remained caged.

Tua has prepared for Saturday night's fight at the Prince Ranch, about a 20-minute drive out in the desert from the Las Vegas strip.

The property also is used by an animal trainer, and penned up about 100 yards from where Tua trained were donkeys, Shetland ponies, a camel, Aslan the lion, Jagger the tiger and a chimpanzee.

Some wise guy cracked that Tua must be preparing for gorilla warfare.

Thursday's workout was watched by about 150 tourists from New Zealand, where Tua, who will turn 28 Nov. 21, has lived since his family moved from Western Samoa when he was 11.

They serenaded the fighter with, "One David Tua, there's only one David Tua." He laughed. He is quick to laugh ... up to a point.

"This is a very tough fight," said Emanuel Steward, trainer of Lewis, the IBF-WBC champion from Britain.

Tua has a 37-1 record, with 32 knockouts, and he has never been knocked down or been cut as an amateur or pro. He is ranked No. 1 by both the IBF and WBC. The pay-per-view fight at Mandalay Bay is an IBF mandatory defense for Lewis.

When a reporter began a question, "If you win . . ." Tua interrupted and said, "Not `if,' `when.' If you're going to say `if,' then I'm not going to talk to you."

Then he smiled and kept talking.

"It's already tattooed in David Tua's mind that this is his destiny," he said.

To realize his destiny, Tua, who stands about 5-foot-10, will have to get inside against the 6-5 champion.

"I've dealt with height and reach differences, that's nothing new," said Tua, who not only is giving away five inches in height, but 15 inches in reach. The height difference could be the more important.

"I'm short, but I'm big," Tua said.

Indeed he is, with a 38-inch waist and 49-inch chest, 51 inches when the chest is expanded. The three measurements for Lewis are 34, 44 and 46.

Whatever happens, Tua is making his mark on this capital of glitz, glamor and gambling.

He wears his hair in what he calls a Samoan warrior's hairdo. His head is shaved on the side and back and the hair stands straight up to a height of five inches.

Tua, who has a tattoo of Samoan figures on his right calf and one saying "Samoan 100 percent" on his left calf, will wear sacred beads into the ring.

Lewis is the favorite, but he has no chance in outshining the challenger on his ring entrance.

Besides the beads, Tua will enter the ring wearing a lavalava (a Samoan kilt) to the accompaniment of a Samoan drummer. A Samoan warrior will welcome him into the ring by blowing on a conch shell.

"It's going to be a beautiful night and a great night for David Tua," he said.

The TVKO telecast will begin at 9 p.m., with the main event set to start about 11:30 p.m. It will be preceded by three 10-round bouts.